YAYOI KUSAMA’S FIREFLIES ON THE WATER at the Whitney

July 12, 2012, September 30, 2012

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929), Fireflies on the Water, 2002. Mirror, plexiglass, 150 lights and water, 111 × 144 1/2 × 144 1/2 in. (281.9 × 367 × 367 cm) overall. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Postwar Committee and the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee and partial gift of Betsy Wittenborn Miller 2003.322a-tttttttt. © Yayoi Kusama. Photograph courtesy Robert Miller Gallery

Yayoi Kusama’s depictions of seemingly endless space have been a central focus of her artistic career. Kusama’s Fireflies on the Water (2002)—with its carefully constructed environment of lights, mirrors, and water—is one of the outstanding examples of this kind of installation, which creates a space in which individual viewers are invited to transcend their sense of self.

Fireflies on the Water, a work in the Whitney’s collection, is being shown in conjunction withYayoi Kusama, which is on view on the fourth floor July 12 through September 30, 2012.

More Information at the Whitney.

Books the Central Library owns about Yayoi Kusama

Down the Rabbit Hole in Colorful Dots, Twisted Typography

Yayoi Kusama is Japan’s most celebrated contemporary artist, and she brings us a new and a captivating take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.


Kusama sees colorful spots on everything she looks at due to a rare eye condition she has had since she was a child. For most of us it would be a hindrance but Kusama has used it to her advantage by creating bright and vibrant hallucinogenic art. 


Now you can read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland illustrated with Kusama's illustrations. It certainly is a different way to read Alice but a wonderful crazy one.


And if you happen to be in London, you can see an exhibit of Kusama's work at the Tate Modern.


If you happen to be in London the nine decades of Kusama's work is showing at the Tate Modern right now.


Read more and see more of her Alice illustrations at Brainpickings.org


Watch the video below